From the ashes
by Angel of Death360
Summary: 3 years after Zootopia, Nick Wilde is a private investigator and Judy Hopps is a detective for the Detective Squad. When a dead tiger is fished out of a river containing Nick's business card, Nick and Judy must work together to prevent a major attack that would change Zootopia forever.
1. Chapter 1

The building in Savanna Central had twenty floors. The first two floors contained an insurance company, called the Animal's Life Insurance Company. The next eighteen floors contained a variety of different small businesses, from dentists to law firms. But of all twenty floors, there was only one office belonging to a private investigator, located on the fifteenth floor. The door leading into the office was made of oak and there was a window fitted into it. In black block letters, were the words: Nicholas Wilde, Private Investigator. Behind the door was a modest office with a pine desk and a chair behind it. On the wall behind the chair was a framed picture of a male red fox and a female rabbit, both in police uniforms. Next to it was a Zootopia Police Academy diploma of graduation that had been framed as well. But the most important feature of the office was the male red fox sitting in the aforementioned chair, behind the aforementioned pine desk. The male red fox's name was Nick Wilde. In the corner of the room, about two metres away from the desk, was a TV, which was turned onto the news and being watched by Nick. The anchor, who was a wolf by the name of Jonathan Growle, was talking.

"Earlier today, at about nine in the morning, a car bomb exploded in Sahara Square, killing six animals and injuring another dozen." Said the anchor animal, "this heinous attack has claimed to be the work of the most dangerous terrorist group in the city, known as the Predator Liberation Front, whose stated goal is to eradicate all the prey in the city and have predators as the dominant group in Zootopia. The PLF, or more commonly, the Front, was created just a week after Mayor Lionheart was beaten in the mayoral race by the current mayor, Alexis Nielson, a zebra, just one year before."

Despite being a predator himself, Nick vehemently disagreed with the Front and their goal to eradicate all prey in Zootopia. He believed that the prey and predator could live together. His friendship with Detective Judy Hopps at the ZPD was proof of that. They had once been partners, three years ago, but that was before Nick discovered that he couldn't escape his past of crime and that he wasn't cut out for following rules and police procedures that were so strict you could barely breathe. So, after only six months of being a police officer, Nick gave Chief Bogo a piece of his mind and quit, deciding to become a private investigator so he could still feel useful and help without having to be a cop. It was only about three months ago that Judy made detective and appointed to the Detective Squad of the ZPD, whose job is to investigate all serious criminal cases in Zootopia. Nick wondered if he might be a detective if he had stayed on the force, maybe, he might even still be Judy's partner. Sometimes, he regretted ever leaving the police, and Judy most of all, but they still hung out. Sometimes they worked a mutual case, most times they just went to the bar and drank themselves stupid. Ever since Judy had become a detective, she'd changed. She had been introduced to the darker side of animalkind, the murders and such, she didn't talk as much as she used to, she wasn't as happy as she was. It was as if all the charisma had been drained out of her. The news anchor finished his report and moved on to a story about a house fire in the Canyonlands before Nick switched the TV off. Almost as if on purpose, the phone on Nick's desk began to ring, he waited a couple of seconds until the phone had a good couple of rings, always better to keep them waiting was his motto, before picking it up and answering with "Nicholas Wilde Private Investigator, how can I help you?" Much to his surprise, the voice on the other end of the phone was Detective Judy Hopps, his former partner.

"Nick, I need your help."

Nick sat upright at the sound of her voice, almost as if she were in the room with him. He regained his composure before he said  
"Judy, ummm, what do you need help with exactly" blubbering like a schoolgirl with a crush.

"We dragged a body out of the river in the Rainforest District, a tiger. He didn't have any ID on him, but he did something else"

"What did you find and what does this body have to do with me, you don't think I killed a tiger did you?" asked Nick, starting to get suspicious now.

"No of course not, but we did find your business card in his coat pocket" said Judy.

"My card?" said Nick, confused now, t took him a second, but then he remembered. A tiger had come to him last week asking for his help in tracking down a missing animal. His name was Marshall Sharpe and he was seeking his daughter, who had disappeared a couple of days before. Granted the daughter was twenty-two and old enough to make her own decisions, even if it meant laying low and going off the radar without telling her father. Nick had told Marshall as much, but the father still believed that his daughter's disappearance was foul play and insisted that she would never do that without telling him where she was going. So, playing along for the promise of a decent pay check, Nick had given Marshall his business card and told him that he'd call. However he hadn't gotten around to it because he was still working on a false insurance claim case that he'd just finished up two days before.

"Yeah, I remember now. What do you need?" asked Nick

Judy replied with "could you get down here, I need to ask you some questions" she then gave Nick the address and told him to get over there ASAP. So Nick hung up the phone, got his tan trench coat on, and went downstairs after locking his office door behind him. He got into his black car and drove to the address Judy had given him. It took him half-an hour but he finally arrived. The Rainforest District was known for its treetop houses connected by rope bridges, however there were still many streets and houses on the ground of the District, which were mainly situated along the banks of the Yellow River. When Nick arrived there was an area on the banks of the river which was cordoned off with police tape and where a dozen cops were milling around, performing different duties, from witness questioning to forensic services to just writing down notes on notepads. Nick approached the side of the police tape which was being guarded by a rhino cop whom Nick didn't recognise, as Nick got closer the cop scoffed and said "get lost fox, police only".

"My name is Nick Wilde, Detective Judy Hopps called me down here" said Nick.

The rhino scoffed and said "yeah right, leave fox, before I put you down."

That made Nick angry and his claws came out of his paws, ready to maul this sad excuse for a cop when Nick heard a familiar voice say  
"Officer Stompson, let the fox through". The rhino, Stompson, sneered, but he lifted the tape all the same to let Nick through; who promptly retracted his claws gave the cop a dirty look before walking into the crime scene. The first thing he noticed was his old partner, Judy Hopps, looking at him with something like pity in her eyes. Then she said "sorry Nick, I forgot to tell him you were coming". Nick nodded and said "it's alright; I'm used to it by now".

Judy nodded, then led Nick over to the body of a dead tiger.

"Cause of death was a single gunshot wound to the head. It was execution-style, professional, we think it was a gang hit, Mr Big maybe" said Judy

Nick shook his head before saying "no, his turf is Tundratown, plus a gun isn't his style, he prefers to ice his victims."

"A new crime boss maybe" said Judy.

"Maybe, although I haven't heard anything about it"

"So, why was your card in his pocket?' asked Judy

Then Nick explained everything to her, he told her all about how the tiger had come to his office asking him to locate his daughter, and told her his identity because he had none on him.

When he was done Judy said "thanks for all that, I'll run his name through the police database and see if we get any hits."

After a couple of seconds Nick said "so is that it, we done here?"

"Well, I finished my shift, do you want to go get a drink and I'll leave one of the other detectives here in charge". Nick smiled, and then said, "Yeah sure, let's get a drink".

Judy talked to another detective on the scene, an elk, and then when she was finished her and Nick walked to his car together and the drove to their usual bar in the Downtown District known as _Bruce's,_ named for its owner Bruce Razorton. Luckily, Judy's apartment was right across the street from the bar in a ten story apartment building. The bartender was a jaguar and a former cop named Bruce Razorton, who had known both Nick and Judy before he retired three years ago, a month before Nick quit.

"Hey you two, the usual?" Bruce asked them when they sat down at the bar.

"Yes" they both answered at the same time.

A couple of minutes later Bruce brought them both beer and they gulped them down like there was no tomorrow.

"Man that's good" said Judy

"You're telling me" said Nick

As the night got later more and more patrons came into the bar, most of them cops, one of them was even the elk detective Judy had left in charge of the crime scene in the Rainforest District. When midnight rolled around Nick and Judy decided to leave. Judy offered to let Nick stay at her place for the night because he was too drunk to get home at this hour, and so they both went up into her apartment on the fifth floor of the ten story apartment building across the street from _Bruce's._ As Judy opened the door to her apartment, Nick's eyelids were getting incredibly heavy and he thought he might fall asleep as soon as he lay down. The door was opened and they both went in. As Judy walked to her room, Nick laid down on her couch in her living room and closed his eyes. Then he heard Judy's voice from her bedroom door, "Nick" she said. As Nick opened his eyes and looked at her, he couldn't believe his eyes, Judy Hopps was completely naked.

"Follow me" she said and walked back into her room. Nick quickly got up and did as he was told and followed her into her room where she was laying on her bed, waiting for him.

"Take me, Nick" she said

Nick stripped all his clothes off and positioned himself on top of Judy, where he felt his member only inches away from her warm womanhood. The, he pushed himself inside her again and again, he took one of her nipples in his mouth, then he felt her tighten as she climaxed, which finally pushed him over the edge and he finished with her. Panting, he rolled off her, and then lay down on the bed next to Judy's warm body until they both fell asleep.

The next morning arrived quickly and Nick was still in Judy's bed, Judy, however, was nowhere to be found. That was when he heard the shower running in her bathroom. Last night was amazing, Nick had always harboured feelings for her but he didn't know if those feelings were mutual. Minutes later, the shower was turned off and Judy came into her room with a towel wrapped around her. She got dressed in her best pantsuit, giving Nick a fantastic view of her butt, and then she turned to him and said

"Maybe you should go, just until I figure out what this is"

Nick simply nodded and, gathering up his clothes and getting dressed, he went downstairs to the street where his car was still parked outside of _Bruce's_ across the street. He fished his car keys out of his pocket and pushed the remote unlocking button when he was in the middle of the street. The noise was unimaginable. As the car exploded Nick was thrown backwards. The heat of the explosion felt like he was too close to the sun. Car alarms went off all along the street and Judy came bounding out of her apartment building, she saw Nick on the ground and ran over to him as fast as she could.

"Nick, are you alright?" she asked him with genuine sympathy.

"Yeah, I'm fine, but something gives me the idea that someone doesn't want me on your dead tiger case" said Nick, as he and Judy watched the flames and ash of the car explosion rise into the air.


	2. Chapter 2

An hour after the car bomb, Nick and Judy were at Division One, located in Savanna Central. They were on the Detective Squad's floor of the building, near the very top. They had requested a patrol car pick them up from Judy's apartment because she didn't want to risk taking her car after seeing what had happened to Nick's. Judy sat at her desk, and Nick was sitting in the chair opposite hers.

"Okay, are you sure that bomb was related to the tiger case?" asked Judy

"Positive" answered Nick, "I didn't have any other open cases, and I sure as hell didn't make any enemies on other cases".

"You can't know that for sure" said Judy

"I just know it's related to Marshall's death. I think our first move is to find the daughter he came to me about"

"Nick, do you think you're on this case. A murder attempt was made on your life."

"Exactly, and I have to see this through. If I had helped Marshall find his daughter a week ago when he came to see me, he might still be alive. I'm helping on this case; I don't care what you say"

Judy, looking almost shocked and sad at the same time, said "ok fine, I'll have to run it by Chief Bogo later, for now, what do we have?"

"The daughter's name is Juliet Sharpe" said Nick, "Marshall told me when he came to see me, he also gave me a picture of her, but I left it at my place"

"Juliet Sharpe. Wait a minute that name sounds familiar" said Judy as she typed the missing girl's name into the police database on her computer. She hit enter and sure enough, a single result popped up. Judy clicked it and a case file filled the screen.

"That's where I remember the name from" said Judy, finally remembering, "I heard Detective Delgato talking about his newest missing persons case, he said that the woman who went missing was a known prostitute named Juliet Sharpe."

"So Marshall, having gotten no help from me, came here and officially reported his daughter missing" said Nick.

Meanwhile Judy was reading Juliet's file from the database and said to Nick "Juliet was arrested three times on prostitution charges. Looks like daddy's little angel wasn't all she was cracked up to be. Ok here's her home address, looks like she lived with a roommate, a cheetah named Sally Robinson, I say we pay her a visit and see if she knows where Juliet is"

"I agree, but first we'll need a car" said Nick

"I know just where to get one" said Judy with a smile on her face.

They went to the vehicle lockup located underneath the building. A uniformed sheep met them and said "you need something Detective Hopps?"

"Yes actually, I need to requisition a car"

"The only one available is that red one on the end" said the officer. Nick and Judy went to the red car at the end and, with Judy in the driver's seat; they took off to the apartment from Juliet's file, which was located in Sahara Square. The drive was only fifteen minutes at most, and was completely silent, nobody talked. This was no doubt due to their encounter the previous night, which until then had been pushed to the back of their minds because of the excitement that was an explosion that morning outside of Judy's apartment. When they arrived outside of the house they both got out of the car and walked to the front door together. Judy knocked on the door and said "Sally Robinson, my name is Detective Judy Hopps ZPD; I need to ask you some questions". A couple of seconds later the door opened and a large female cheetah were standing in front of them.

"I'm Sally Robinson" she said, before continuing with "please come inside detectives". Nick and Judy walked through the door and into the living room, followed by Sally who sat on end of a grey couch. Nick and Judy sat at the other end. Judy began by saying

"Your roommate is Juliet Sharpe, yes?"

Sally nodded, then said "yes, but I haven't seen her in a week and a half. Is she alright?"

"We don't know" said Nick, "her father is dead. His body was found in the Rainforest District last night and we think she may be in trouble".

Sally looked shocked, scared even, then said "that's horrible, about her father I mean, but I don't know where she is. She disappeared ten days ago and I haven't heard from her since".

"Sally, did you know that Juliet was a prostitute" asked Nick in a flat tone.

Sally looked like she did, and said as much "yes I knew. She was my best friend, we told each other everything. She's been a prostitute for three years, she needed the money."

"I assume her father didn't know" said Judy

"No, he had no idea"

"Ok and do you know where she worked. Where was her usual hang-out?" asked Nick.

"Gold Street, in Savanna Central, her and a couple of others".

"Thanks for your time, if you remember anything else, please call me" said Judy, before handing Sally a card with her mobile number on it.

"Yes, I will" said the cheetah.

Nick and Judy showed themselves out and walked back to their car.

"We have to go to Gold Street," said Nick, "maybe one of the other hookers there will know where Juliet is".

"In my experience, when a hooker goes missing it's because she OD'd. I wouldn't be surprised if we found her body in an alleyway with a needle sticking out of her arm" sad Judy

"She wasn't an addict" said Nick confidently,

"Like you could possibly know that"

"Didn't you see the pictures in the living room, on the wall?" he asked. She gave him a blank look, so he explained with "the most recent picture couldn't be more than two weeks old and in that picture is Juliet and Sally. In the picture Juliet looked the picture of health, no track marks from needles, no puffy skin. Hell, she didn't even have bags under her eyes"

Judy held up her hand to stop him, and then said "how do you know that picture is two weeks old?"

"The photo was taken at the annual Animal's Day Parade, which was two weeks ago, you can tell they were at the parade because of the various items in the background, such as float"

"Good god Nick, you're actually a pretty good private eye" she said with something like astonishment in her voice.

"Don't be so surprised; ever since I set up shop as a gumshoe, I've handled many missing persons cases, I know what I'm doing". They both got into the car and Judy drove them back to Savanna Central, to Gold Street. By the time they arrived it was ten past ten in the morning and the street was packed with animals of all shapes and sizes walking, shopping, or just sitting on benches, reading.

"The working girls won't be here until late tonight," said Nick, "don't we have anything else to do?"

"Yes," said Judy, "I have to go talk to my CI about another case I'm working"

Nick knew that CI meant Confidential Informant, someone cops used to gather information on various criminal activities and then report back to them for different reasons, sometimes money; sometimes they just got tired of the criminal business.

Judy started the car and drove them to a bar in Tundratown called _The Elephant's Trunk._ Judy and Nick got out of their car and walked into the bar. Nick's first thought upon entering was that it was definitely a bar for lowlifes, as evident by the various shifty-looking animals in the bar. Wolves, lions, moose, the bartender was a rhino who just stared at them as they made their way into a dark corner of the bar in which there was a booth being occupied by a single ferret. Judy sat down across from the ferret and Nick did the same.

"Who's this guy?" asked the ferret

"A friend" answered Judy, "don't worry, he's good. What you got for me Reggie?"

The ferret, Reggie, said "you heard about the Front's attack yesterday?"

"Of course, I was at the scene" said Judy

"Well the Front is planning something big, an attack that will change everything"

"What?" she asked

"I don't know exactly, but word is it's some kind of biological weapon"

"That's all you got. That the Front is planning something big and it might be a biological weapon" said Judy, emphasising the word 'might'.

"What can I say, the Front is tight-knit, they don't trust anybody with anything, and nobody even knows who their leader is. For all we know, it could be a hamster"

"It's not a goddamned hamster" said Judy, visibly angry now, "your information is worthless. More innocent animals are going to die and I have no way of stopping it".

Judy got up and left the bar, Nick stayed back for a second, only to say to Reggie "you're an incredibly bad informant, you know that?"

Reggie shrugged and said "hey, I got to do what I got to do to survive, and police protection is very good for my health"

"Yeah well I'm not a cop, so watch your back" said Nick

Reggie leaned forward and said "is that a threat, fox". He said the last word with such disgust that one could almost forget that he was both a ferret and a snitch.

"Not a threat" said Nick, "a promise of pain".

Before Reggie could say anything else Nick got out of the booth and followed Judy to the car, his bushy tail swinging behind him. When he got outside the snow was falling more heavily than before and Judy was already sitting in the car. Nick got in with her and together, they drove back to Savanna Central.

"I didn't know you were on the PLF case?" he said

"Yeah, I was assigned to it last month," she said, "but so far no new leads. These Front guys are like ghosts, they don't leave a trail".

They arrived in Savanna Central half an hour later and, although it was nowhere near sundown, they decided to stay on Gold Street and stake it out until the night walkers came out.

Nearly ten hours later, one pizza, and two beers later, Nick and Judy were still sitting in their car on Gold Street, and now the prostitutes had finally come out. Up and down the street was empty but for female animals of many different species just standing around, wearing skimpy clothes like skirts that were too short and too tight.

"Now what, do we talk to one of them?" asked Nick

"If they find out I'm a cop they'll scatter like cockroaches under a light. No, better to just sit and wait until one of them tries to pick up a client, then we'll arrest that one and see if they know anything about Juliet".

It was a good plan Nick thought, but it require patience, and they'd already been sitting in the car for hours on end and the last time they'd got out to stretch their legs was two hours ago.

That was when they'd heard it, a gunshot followed by a scream. Nick and Judy looked at each other, then they both got out of the car and ran towards the source of the sound, an alleyway a couple hundred metres up the street from where they were. They got to the end of the alleyway and Judy took out her gun, she went in first, Nick was behind her. He'd left his illegally-bought gun in his office yesterday when Judy called him to the crime scene in the Rainforest District and he hadn't been back since. The alleyway smelt like piss and blood, a couple of seconds later, Nick saw why it smelt like the latter. Up against one brick wall was the body of a female tiger. He recognised her straight away from the photograph her father had given him a week ago. It was Juliet Sharpe, and she had a bullet hole in her head. The scream they'd heard was created by a female fox, a prostitute, who'd stumbled upon the body. Judy put her gun back in her holster, then she turned to Nick and said "Well, we found your missing girl".


End file.
